Bus Upgrades!

[sandra@BCM]

What is the best improvement you have made to your bus?

[Van]

We have done many since ownership. Complete plumbing with soon to be install with larger capacity holding tanks. Complete re-wire of house electrial with larger house batteries. Upgraded HVAC, audio/visual. Led lighting. New braking/air/suspension systems. New ground up engine build, but of all that the very best would be the new Gary Hatt bobble head on the dashboard.

[dtcerrato]

Complete self contained conversion of an in service bus in 79 with a lifetime of improvements & restorations/remodels. Our latest substantial improvement was the addition of solar array and inverter with improved battery banks.

[windtrader]

Solar panels and lithium house battery

[Jim Blackwood]

The leveling jacks.

Jim

[Tedsoldbus]

I "upgraded" my inverter, engine run relay, electric flush toilet, spin on trani filter, and my fridge (twice)  because they died.
Recovered the funky valences. New flooring instead of purple shag carpet.
Guess the only things I added was a Garmin GPS, portable full hook ups, and the TPMS - which I love to pieces. Just piece of mind for a guy that does not drive this bus enough to "feel" that something is wrong with an inside tire.
Not doing solar....
Will add a generator exhaust snorkel before I go to Nappanee.
Guess that's it. I hope....

[dtcerrato]

@Ted said: "Guess that's it."  I hope....

Lol! That statement doesn't exist in the bus world. Does it?
Opps, there I go thinking out loud again.
Now back to your regularly scheduled program...

[Nova Eona]

I think so far my favorite upgrade that I've put in myself is the four-way camera system with 'birds eye' view stitching, makes maneuvering in tight spaces so much more pleasant.

[freds]

@Ted said: "Guess that's it."  I hope....

Lol! That statement doesn't exist in the bus world. Does it?
Opps, there I go thinking out loud again.
Now back to your regularly scheduled program...

Loosing track and still have a long list of things started and not finished or hey one more change type of thing!!!

[Tedsoldbus]

I know I am kidding myself. My duo therm A/c units still work great. Get warm when I ask. Get cold when I throw that switch. But they are 43 years old. Still have appliances in your house that are 43 years old??
But for now....  Ted happy.

[chessie4905]

Oil furnace 70 years. Basement refrigerator 35 to 40. Not an appliance but a Walker Whippet floor jack  and an Alemite pneumatic grease gun from the 40's.

[plyonsMC9]

Replaced an old failing 15 Kw Martin/Fidelity diesel generator w/ a new 14 Kw Wrico/Kubota generator.  What a relief! 

> Phil

[freds]

My observation after a fair amount of tinkering is that my observation is that our primary advantage over standard stick and staples RV's is the bay storage space that we have underneath our main living area!!!

Given that passenger/ entrance side bay volume is much more valuable than the same volume on the drivers side, so in planning the necessary layout of desired household system items, shift as much static stuff you can that way with out getting totally out of balance. I.E. Black/grey tank on the drivers side that would be emptied before hitting the road...

It is really is a critical resource!!!

Secondary thought, do we really need a 1000+ pound generator with solar and an option to run to a full service RV park with 50 AMP service?

[plyonsMC9]

Hi Fred,
Re: solar, generator, 50 amp service - IMHO it's about your travel lifestyle. 

For us, we like the 50 amp campgrounds from time to time as they also have unlimited water, and we're now spoiled use those to get a lot of washes done in the bus.  Also, some of those are fun from time to time. And our granddaughter enjoys the playgrounds, pools, etc.  But we also boondock when we can, and the solar is nice to keep generator runtimes down. Less noise, less fuel consumption.  But - our OTR cooling runs off of 120v and for sure we need the generator for that.  And when our solar doesn't keep up while boondocking.

But - that's just us! 

Kind Regards, Phil

[plyonsMC9]

Recently I added the EHP heat blanket to the exhaust pipes and turbo in our DL3.  I was surprised at how easy it was to install and how much of a difference it made in the rear bedroom.  It used to heat up from the engine - especially during hot summer months and long drives.  But no more!  So in my book that was a pretty good upgrade.

Hope this helps, Phil